Let's try Arduino in High School!

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform that is fantastic to create interactive objects or environments. Arduino is cheap and very easy to use, so is a very powerful tool for artists, designers and hobbyists. And it is an amazing tool to teach electronics and programming. Let's try Arduino in High School!

Here you have "Arduino The Documentary":

Dancing "Cupid Shuffle"

Watching the tv series "Treme", I have discovered a song called "Cupid Shuffle".  It is a song with an easy choreography.  Do you know the song?  Is it famous in Spain?  Here you have a video with people dancing the song:



And another video about how to dance it:



I know it's very easy, but I like it!

Here Be Dragons

"Hic sunt dracones" was written in the Hunt-Lenox Globe in 1503.  It was a way of saying that we don't know an area of the map and it may be dangerous.  Brian Dunning made a video about critical thinking and called it "Here Be Dragons".  In ancient times there were legends about dragons and other creatures to explain the unknown.  Now we give new names to the supernatural: reiki, homeopathy, ghosts, conspiracy theories...

Here you have a press kit about this video: Press Kit

What do you think about this topic and the video?  Should we watch it in class?

Another article about this problem: Supersticiones, pseudociencias y placebos: ¿cómo saber qué es verdad y qué es mentira?

Kids don't learn from people they don't like

Rita Pearson was a teacher most of her life. She said that kids don't learn from people they don't like. What do you think? How important are the relationships between teachers and students? In this amazing TED talk we remember the educator Rita Pearson:

Duolingo: learn a language for free and translate the web

Imagine a good free program to learn a language. Imagine that this good program is free because when you are using it you are working for them: they use the answers of your exercises to translate the web. That's Duolingo, one of the best web pages to learn a language. You can use Duolingo in your browser or in your smartphone, because there are versions for iPhone and Android. So let's recommend Duolingo to our students!

In this TED talk the founder of Duolingo, a mathematician from Guatemala called Luis von Ahn, tells us about how he invented Duolingo and Captcha:

Learn American English Slang and Idioms with American Anthony

What you learn in textbooks is very useful information. But there’s a problem. Most textbooks don’t teach “slang” English.

If you want to communicate with native English speakers, watch TV in English, work and travel overseas then you need to speak and understand “real” spoken English.

http://www.americananthony.com

Commentators divided on Thatcher's legacy

Former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22073484

Unravelling the mystery of Pablo Neruda´s Death

The remains of Chile's Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda are being exhumed on Monday in a bid to determine the cause of his death after his assistant alleged he was murdered by Gen Augusto Pinochet's military regime, the BBC's Gideon Long reports from Isla Negra.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22027787

Coursera: free university courses, everywhere

Do you want to take a course from Stanford University for free? Do you prefer Princeton? You can! How it works? Watch short video lectures, take interactive quizzes, complete peer graded assessments, and interact live with your new classmates and teachers. These courses are called massive open online courses (MOOCs). Today there are 335 courses, about Mathematics, Arts, Humanities, Economics... Take a look!
https://www.coursera.org/

Words in "English" invented by the Spanish

A little bit of spanish wit for our return from holidays.

http://www.thelocal.es/galleries/Culture/twisted_english#.UVsAcDfm44U

Regards,

Ana

President Obama Second Term Speech

President Barack Obama delivered his second inaugural address after being sworn in for his second term as President of the United States of America.

BBC LEARNING

This is a very useful link for those of you who want to improve your English. It has a lot of resources for both learners and teachers. BBC Learning

Aaron Swartz

How Aaron helped build the Internet

London Helicopter Crash

Two people were killed and 12 were hurt when a helicopter crashed into a crane on a building in central London.

The Marshmallow Challenge

The "Marshmallow Challenge" is an easy, fun and interesting activity to study how we work in groups.  This exercise involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape, string and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?

The glass half-full

Crisis in Spain.  Maybe it's time to look on the bright side.  Interesting video about the good things of our country:

The importance of learning a second language

Hello again English Breakfast team! I know you are having your meetings twice a week in the usual place and that you have new member which make part of our "select group" of English learners.
I want to share an hillarious video that explain in a very convincing way, why it is important to learn, at least, a second language. I'm even thinking of using it in the future...
Kindest regards,
Ana

exchange conversations

_Hello everybody
I post this link in case someone wants to speak English on Wednesdays and Sundays evenings.
Silvia and I will be there next Sunday.
http://www.cafegaldos.com/

The puzzle of motivation

We need to motivate our students and we usually think that traditional rewards are the solution: extra points, punishments, prizes...  But social scientists have demonstrated that they aren't always as effective as we think.  In the following talk, Dan Pink explains why:


What do you think?  Do you need your students to be creative?  I recommend you this Spanish article, too:
La sorprendente verdad sobre lo que motiva a tus alumnos

Human Rights

On December 10th we will celebrate The International Day of Human Rights. As I teach about this in English I will proyect this short video in my History class. It is very interesting!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh3BbLk5UIQ